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Friday, May 31, 2013

A lady at my office is about to get married. I met her fiancé recently when I was out with friends on Mill. We get along very well, might even say we're friends (or at least friendly and could be friends) but I'm not invited to the wedding. Some people are invited from her team. I say office politics. But her team put planned a surprise shower.
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Awww.

So my husband Mick and I checked out their Macy's registry and found some nice Mikasa beer glasses. 4 for $40. Gulp. So I went to Total Wine and got a 6 pack of beer glasses for $20. They loved it and it got passed around! I mentioned it isn't the one on their registry because "we" thought these were "better" and they said they expect to learn from the masters. That's right young'uns, we'll show you how it's done.

Yes, I think I should have another, thanks.

I knew there would be cake and ice cream, so I went to the gluten-free bakery (Gluten Free Creations) at lunch and got some peanut butter cocoa cupcakes. So. Amazing. Some day, I'll bake yummy/pretty too. Some day.

I was in the strawberry patch this evening, picking strawberries and flipping the unripe ones off the ground to try to save them from roly poly spawn of satan bugs. I had already emptied the beer bait bowls I left for the snails. It's getting really gross, attracting some other even less wanted bugs, so I'm leaving them dry for a while. Maybe I should just put them out for a couple days at a time.

As I was streaming my hands through the plants, I saw a tiny, maybe inch long, praying mantis. It was so unexpected and I don't think I've seen one, well, I don't remember seeing one specifically. But definitely not like this. I thought about going to get my camera but I knew I wouldn't be able to find him when I got back since he was so small and green and in the thick of the patch.

And then I saw a stunningly beautiful yellow grasshopper. I've never seen anything like it. It was at least 2 inches, maybe 3. So I went to get my phone. (Who knows where the camera is when you're in a hurry...) Of course, my phone hates to work in the almost dark so the photos are blurry.
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I don't know what happened to this photo. There is an empty bowl in the background.

Yes, I know it's blurry.

Not that I think I have the quick reflexes to catch a grasshopper, but I was told later that I should have killed him, that they are terrible for the garden. Huh. I guess I could have tried to scare him out of the patch and let Cassi play with him. Or maybe she will go in and get him on her own. When we're not looking of course, since she's not allowed in there.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Here is my homemade coffee creamer. I'm pretty sure, after some trial and error, that this hardened, separated thing is only happening when I use the really "clean" coconut milk. The ones with some gum don't seem to do it so far. WTH.

a small piece that landed in my drink

I have never grown cantaloupes. I haven't been a fan. I think of cantaloupe as the thing that ruins fruit salad. What? I don't think all fruit should taste like that one fruit! But I had some cantaloupe that I made into a smoothie and then I found another recipe that looked good so I'm a little interested. I kind of have to be since the helper planted them in our farm. :) Our melons are getting bigger but didn't look the right color to me. But I wasn't sure so I grabbed the largest ginormous one and cut it open. Um, no.

My timing sucks balls cantaloupe

Someday, I may be a domestic goddess Pioneer woman whatever. More likely, I'll get a wife to do that. YES. that. is. more. likely. to. happen. Don't doubt me, people. I can make things happen. LOL.

I saw Dr. Q today and while he did my adjustments, he was talking with the students about classes and the adjustor tool and stuff. He says my back is in pretty good shape, that my yoga stretching must be helping.

However, he is adjusting my ribs a lot. He thinks I'm twisting, either in the garden or how I lay on the couch in the evening. Or both. But definitely thinks the garden is some of it. I can see that--for example, I have to crouch in the strawberry patch underneath the netting and then pick strawberries for one container and bugs/snails for the other.

Anyway, we have had some good stuff coming in from our little farm, so I took him a bag of goodies: a spaghetti squash, butternut squash, zucchini and yellow squash. He seemed genuinely surprised and appreciative.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

I have all these butternut squashes from the garden. So I made soup. I found all these curry recipes so I used some panang curry paste that I already had open.

so pretty

He won't eat it. Not even interested.

And it's super spicy. I tried adding some crab to tone it down. I don't know why I thought that would work. It didn't. It's really spicy. I need to remember that when I'm using this curry paste! Damn, this is hot.

(Update: he did try it a few days later and thought it was bland. Too spicy. Spicy and bland. WTF. So he's still not interested.)

I used to be very adventurous about eating out. I'd go anywhere and loved to try all the new restaurants. Now I dread going to a restaurant the first time. Often, I end up with a salad, missing half the ingredients, and no dressing.

Today was my "review" lunch, so we went to North. It was a nice enough place, kind of trendy, seems like a good place to go for drinks maybe. I had a salad.

To be fair, we also had artichokes to start. And the salad was good. Yay, salad?

Friday, May 24, 2013

I came home from work to find this harvest. Except the corn has already been blanched and frozen (vacuum sealed). I am SO thankful that my husband and his helpers did all this work so I can feast for months.

One of the helpers offered this gem: it won't taste as good after it's been frozen. Um. Okay. I'm confused. What's the alternative? Eat it all today? Huh? WTH.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

I was considering a conference. I could go all day or half day. Both options include lunch. A lunch I can't eat.

I hate that my life has changed into this. I actually consider something so mundane as the buffet lunch when deciding what to attend. It applies to other events too.

I have to decide if I will go and be social--isn't one of the purposes to network? Or do I protect myself, my privacy, my mental well-being, and skip functions that include eating? I know it sounds dramatic, but it's not like I can just NOT eat and everyone will ignore that I'm not eating. Or bring something and expect everyone to ignore that I'm eating something different. Even though/if I don't want it to be all about me, the spotlight is always mine when food is involved.

The people who know me IRL may think I'm an extrovert and the attention is no big deal, but the people who really know me know I'm an introvert who has trained myself to behave as an extrovert. Having the spotlight shone on me makes me uncomfortable. A perfect example was my wedding day.

We should have foreseen it and taken other steps. Since I didn't grow up with a dad, I wanted to walk by myself down the aisle. It just didn't make sense to have someone "give me away." I was the fastest bride down that aisle ever. Seriously, the video looks like I'm in fast forward. As soon as all eyes were on me, I panicked and went as fast as I could! I should have had my sister walk with me.

Anyway, now I get to be the center of attention all the fucking time. It's tiresome. I try to look at it as a good thing because I'm able to help and support other people as they learn about their own path. But it's overwhelming to be questioned all the time when I just want to blend in. Or at least be in the moment, in the group, having a conversation about the things people converse about when it's not all about me and my food or lack thereof.

So I chose the half day (I wasn't enthused about the afternoon speakers) and managed to chat with friends while a lot of people were going through line. Then I took a bathroom break and chatted with some other people. So when I went into the lunchroom, some people were already done eating, so it wasn't so obvious that I hadn't eaten/wasn't eating. And when the afternoon sessions started, I went to True Food and had some chicken panang curry.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

We went to our HOA meeting and our request to put in a well has been approved. Of course, there was conversation about the why (the water rate is tiered, so the cost for a huge property is too high) and expense (too much if you're moving, but worth it if you're staying long enough), but we are putting in a well.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Mondays are jean casual in my office. These are the only jeans I have that fit right now so I haven't been wearing jeans but other casualness. But it's summer and they are appropriate now. Remember when I was looking for black flats and bought these fierce pink shoes? I still love them and they are still comfortable. You love my black flats, don't you?!

a sweater for the cold part of the day (in the office, of course!)

No sweater for the majority of the day. I think the top might be too short.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

The kitchen experiments continue with mixed results. First I tried bone broth. The roasted bones smell awesome. But I'm not so sure about this broth thing. It didn't gel like they say (although that does sound gross) and I tried having it for breakfast and I'm pretty sure that is not going to happen again. (see also here and here. I'm only linking so you can see the health benefits and tell me if I should try again with supervision since I'm not cool enough to make this work. I'm trying NOT to link to recipes that didn't work for me.) I'm not even trying to get my husband Mick to try this one.

bones underneath onions, garlic, peppers.

Next up: strawberry ice cream using canned coconut milk. I may have used my ice cream maker once when we got it about, let's say 15 years ago. It's old. But it seems to work. This experiment took forever since I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Mick liked the ice cream but neither of us thought it was great.

ice cream with syrup (below)

I have so much zucchini, so I tried these zucchini muffins with Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips. Hmm. Edible but not great.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

I decided to "cheat" or take a shortcut and use the pickle juice from my Pickled Perfections pickled veggies. After slicing cucumbers from our garden, I poured the juice over. I hope they turn out awesome!

Monday, May 13, 2013

I went to my monthly monitoring appointment for the drug trial. Next month, I have the long appointment, when I see the researcher and both neurologists. It's also time for my MRI.

I decided to have lunch at Tryst Cafe. I saw them at the Gluten-free expo and had someone tell me about them. The service and the green tea was very good.

say yes to spring rolls

I started with the spring rolls with chili sauce (no soy). They were pretty good but not enough to call it lunch. After some discussion, I decided on a salad with no cheese since the only side I could get with the bunless (for me) sandwiches was a salad. There is not a dedicated fryer for g/f fries.

The salad came with oil and vinegar and lemon because they use soybean oil in their dressings. The candied walnuts were on the side because she wasn't sure about the caramel they use to candy the nuts. Um what? Yeah, they make their own candied walnuts but use caramel instead of sugar. I didn't eat them.